11 Weird Benefits Of Meditation That Everyone Should Know About

When thinking of meditation, some automatically assume it means sitting and doing nothing. Quite oppositely, mediation involves a bit of work and determination to get it right — so it’s nothing close to simply “zoning out.” When you successfully do it, though, there are so many benefits of meditation that have been proven by scientific research. You may have heard in the past that meditation is good for you, but perhaps you don’t know the reasons why. This article will highlight some of the countless reasons meditation is beneficial for our bodies, and who knows, you might just feel the urge to meditate immediately after you read some of them.

Meditation is all about making yourself mindful of your thoughts and surroundings. By training your mind in this way, you are taking your brain (and body) to a new, better place — if only because of the benefits we are about to discuss here. As you will learn, meditation can help in countless ways — from making you feel more positive about yourself, to helping to make you more alert, to helping ease pain. Whatever you choose to use mediation for, it might turn out that you’re benefitting your body in a lot more ways than originally anticipated. And for those who’d like to know more about the different kinds of mediation you might consider trying, check out this article from The Copra Center that breaks down some of the specific types. Here are 11 weird benefits of meditation that everyone should know about.

1. It Can Boost Your Self-Esteem

We can all be critical on ourselves from time to time, but did you know you could use the power of meditation to help quash it? According to a study published by the journal Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, individuals who were classified as self-critical were able to reduce these feelings and increase self-esteem and positive emotions about themselves using meditation.

2. It Can Better Your Ability To Focus

Having trouble focusing? Look no further than a meditation sesh to get your mind right. A study published in the journal Psychological Science examined how meditation affected performance on the verbal reasoning section of the GRE, and found it significantly improved focus in addition to memory during the exam, resulting in higher scores. What’s more, it only took a mere couple of weeks of meditation training before the exam to achieve these results.

3. It Can Makes Your Brain Age More Slowly

Those who practice mediation for 40 minutes a day have thicker cortical walls in their brain than those we don’t meditate, according to a study from the journal NeuroReport. What does that mean? Well, excitingly for the meditators, it means those doing so actually have brains that are aging more slowly than their peers.

4. It Can Help Fight Against Depression

Get this — meditation can have an equal effect on depression as antidepressants can, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The researchers in the study stressed the fact that meditation to achieve these results is best when it is mindful, meaning the meditator is actively training their brain to be as aware as possible.

10. It Can Help You Be A Better Multitakser

For those who find they’re constantly trying to get a lot accomplished at once, meditation might be your key to success. According to a study conducted by University of Washington researchers, those who practiced meditation were better multitaskers in that they switched between tasks less often, remained focused on tasks longer, and reported lower levels of stress and improved memory for tasks.

Now that you’re aware of some of the scientifically proven benefits of meditation, try bringing this practice of mindfulness into your every day life. You might find the benefits popping up for you within a mere couple of weeks.